----Ken Miller was born in Brooklyn, grew up in California and since 1970 has lived in Tacoma WA. His work has included community organizing and corporate public affairs. A political science graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, he's been active in politics for 40 years.
Ken's writing reflects his interest in the intersection of public and private interests. At that intersection, he says, we can see some spectacular crashes. He's driven through more than once. As public affairs planning director for a Fortune 100 multinational, Ken worked with lobbyists at the local, state and national levels to identify the company's public policy goals and craft strategies to pursue them. Sometimes this pitted one company against another; often it meant reconciling shareholder goals with the larger public interest.

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---- Drew Alexander is the central character of Langata Rules and a projected series of adventure novels. Drew is in his late 20s, a Londoner who grew up traveling the world with his diplomat mother and his father, who may have been a spy. Drew joined MI 5, Britain's domestic security force, after college and helped investigate the Tube bombings. Then, partly because of his language skills, he was seconded to MI 6, the international force, akin to the American CIA. Drew worked on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan until he was captured and tortured. He returned home, got a masters in economics from the London School and joined Tembley Marine, a shadowy shipping company with government connections and illegal cargos. Drew is ironic, lethal, unlucky in love. On a spectrum from James Bond to George Smiley, he's closer to Smiley but not dumpy.
----The second book in the series - tentatively titled Edible Air - is set in New Orleans, where Drew investigates the death of a Tembley crew member and gets embroiled in an international competition for control of a lithium field in Central America. Lithium is an essential and scarce element in electric car batteries, and the field happens to lay under a massive cocaine operation.
----The third book will focus on environmental degradation in advance of Olympic Games. The fourth will be set around the Black Sea, and will deal with international traffic in women and girls.
----While the books stand alone, they're unified by Drew's unfolding character, and by the nexus of politics, private interests and crime.